Rotting food, vomit and unmentionable filth smeared on walls – are just some of the things that cleaners have to face when Devon students move out of their flats.

Students have, of course, always been known for being a little less than pristine in their habits.

But the boss of one of Plymouth’s top cleaning firms says they are getting worse – and much, much messier.

There's a toaster still in its box...

Richard Dyer, who runs the successful Non Stop Cleaning company, says he is astounded by the filth he and his teams find when they enter student accommodation.

He specialises in the deep clean blitzing of blocks of student flats during the summer break and said it means dealing with dumped rubbish, disgusting bathrooms and kitchens that leave you with a shudder.

“The state they live in is terrible,” he told The Plymouth Herald. “We find things that have gone off, vomit, and faeces – sometimes up the walls.

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And Mr Dyer, who is aged just 32 himself, despairs of a generation that doesn’t have the wherewithal to pick up a duster.

“Students are beginning to be quite spoilt,” he said. “They are not domesticated, that’s what we are seeing.

“They don’t seem to be getting any training at home.

“This generation does not seem to have the get-up-and-go, and I’m saying that as a young person.”

Well that oven has seen better days

He stressed that his firm, and the Astor House management, strive for the highest standards and make sure that when the new academic year starts the student flats are in perfect condition.

“I like to see the job satisfactorily done, a complete turn around,” he said.

And rubbish everywhere...

Mr Dyer started his Plymouth-based business when he was just 18.

It has grown and, in addition, to cleaning student accommodation, handles other commercial contracts, such as offices and showrooms.

At Astor House, his team spent the entire summer cleansing from top to bottom.

That meant the deep cleaning of all 450 student bedrooms, 60 kitchens, 69 studio flats and all common areas – including the internal and external cleaning of about 1,200 windows on the double block, nine storeys high at its tallest point.

And this is the man who helps clean them

Mr Dyer is not the only person to highlight the mess caused by untidy students.

In summer 2016, The Herald reported on how several streets in the Greenbank area – near the University of Plymouth and Plymouth College of Art campuses – had been left in a “disgusting” state

Special clean-up crews were sent in to pick up dumped food, cans, plastic containers and other items which residents said made the area look “like a rubbish dump”.

Plymouth’s waste supremo, councillor Michael Leaves, said at the time that students were partly to blame following a summer ball and then moving out for the holidays.